[The relationship between medicine and medical suppliers].

In the last decades, many voices from academic medicine are questioning the relationship between the pharmaceutical industry or other medical suppliers and physicians. Conflict of interest has thus become a major issue of concern in medicine and is becoming increasingly important for medical journals and clinical work. Conflicts of interest may emerge in the daily practice of medicine, in medical and pharmacological research, in the process of publication of medical journals and in the dissemination of public and private medical information, such as conferences, lectures, books, pamphlets, monographs, etc. The credibility of physicians has been hampered in recent years by the proliferating connections between them and medical suppliers. The public seems to be increasingly skeptical of clinical medicine, since corporate actions placing profit over public health are usual. Research centers and projects as well as medical journals are considered an extension of the marketing arm of pharmaceutical companies. This undermines the credibility of medical practice, research work and pharmaceutical information, submitted to journals and later included in meta-analysis, influencing therapeutic guidelines. In the meantime, while disclosure has become standard practice in North America, it is not widely used in Latin-America and Europe. If independent researchers are financed by agencies not related to the industry, the problems caused by the increasing financial ties between the pharmaceutical industry and researchers could be overcome, avoiding conflicts of interest. Better disclosure policies and financial tie regulations are also urgently needed.